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The Odyssey Bookshop Monday - Friday, 10:00 - 8:00 |
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Order Books Here! |
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The Odyssey Bookshop Monday - Friday, 10:00 - 8:00 |
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Order Books Here! |
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Pictures of recent events
The Odyssey Bookshop is one of five independent
bookstores participating in WAMC's Roundtable on Tuesday mornings,
just after the 10:00 news. People from the Odyssey will be on about once a
month, talking about our favorite books. The Odyssey Bookshop 413-534-7307 email odysseybks@aol.com
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Emily's Picks Click on any title to order. Back to staff list
Don't
let the Brad Pitt movie fool you! Jim Harrison is the master of
the novella, and while the first two in this book are strong, the final,
titular one stands alone in its near-perfection. This saga of
three brothers is sweeping, haunting and heartbreaking, and more epic in
proportion than any novel ten times its length. It is a tale of
love, loyalty, betrayal, and reconciliation, asking how you can
define insanity when the world itself has gone mad. Harrison is a
man's man, a writer's writer, and his boldness and bluntness of language
may offend those readers lacking in a sense of humor. I, on the
other hand, think he's among the best writers in America today. -
Twilight,
New Moon, and Eclipse trilogy by Stephenie Meyer
Four of my coworkers tried to put these book in my hand
and I resisted for a year like the fool that I am. When I finally
did read them, it was consecutively over the course of three days.
Now waiting for the next one is even worse than waiting for the last
Harry Potter book! These book are absolutely riveting, with the
perfect balance of love, adventure, and horror, with an interesting
dollop of metaphysics. Follow the adventures of misfit Bella,
trying to navigate the tricky waters of high school; her paramour Edward,
who just happens to be a Cold One; and Jacob, her best friend, who isn't
always able to control his beast within. Together these three push
the boundaries of friendship, love & loyalty, with the haunting
questions: Would you give up your soul for eternal love? Would you
be able to ask the people you love to give up theirs? What would
you sacrifice to ensure the safety and security of those you love most?
This novel is richly imagined story told in a sort of call and response style. When Hanna gets the plum job of investigating the Sarajevo Haggadah, a rare manuscript of almost mythic proportion, she must use all of her forensic acumen to solve the mystery of its provenance. Hanna's chapters in the present alternate with chapters that trace the Haggadah's line of ownership back in time, with each previous generation a world within itsef. Ultimately the book is about unity and redemption, though along the way Hanna and the Haggadah's previous owners must deal in turn with fanatical nationalism, harsh anti-semitism, religious fundamentalism, and their own self doubt. This is a real page turner that anybody would enjoy, but true bibliophiles in particular will enjoy the glimpes into the rare book world that Brooks provides.
Free
Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee. This ambitious first novel tells the story of Casey Han, an intense young woman whose father throws her out of the house just one week after graduating from Princeton because she hasn't found a suitable job yet. Resourceful but lacking drive or direction, Casey takes a job as a Wall Street administrative assistant where she tries to navigate the murky waters of high finance while her own credit card debt escalates. Lee pays more attention to social class than anybody I've read in quite a while, delving into Casey's working class Korean immigrant background, her blue-blooded Ivy League fellow alumni, and the nouveau riche daytraders she works for. What attracted me to the story, though, was Casey's honest exploration of the intersections of money & identity, money & love, and love & sex, and what they all mean to her friends, lovers, co-workers, family, and most of all herself.
I can never quite make up my mind whether Bill Bryson is a funny travel writer or a globetrotting humorist. His tone strikes the perfect balance of wry observation and comic hyperbole, with an uncanny ability to introduce facts & statistics to the reader without ever being dull. His travelogue on Australia is no exception. Did you know that there are more things in Australia, on land and in the sea, that can kill you than anywhere else on earth? Or did you know that up until the later decades of the 20th century, Aboriginal children were forcibly ripped from their families to be raised by "civilized" white Australians? Bryson delves into the quotidian and the bizarre, the charming and the disturbing, with equal vigor and delivers a fascinating and moving account of Australia. by Edwidge Danticat This luminous novel takes its name from the Haitian colloquial for those protectors of the political regime who torture their victims by night and disappear before the dawn, leaving only footsteps in the dew. Danticat tells the story of one such man, now leading a quiet life in Brooklyn while facing down the demons from his past. When his path crosses that of one of his former victims, he realizes that it may in fact be easier to seek atonement from her than from himself. Meanwhile, Danticat makes us question whom we hold most dear and whether or not we would betray our values, one compromise at a time, in order to protect them from harm.
Ahh, Terry Pratchett. The Washington Post calls him "arguably the purely funniest English writer since Wodehouse." In this Discworld novel, who else could Death’s apprentice be but a lad named Mort? And what else could Death’s fell black steed be called but Binky? Don’t read this whilst drinking tea if you don’t care for the sensation of snorting it up your nose, because this book is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud. Frequently. Heartily.
This Pulitizer prize-winning novel is both quiet and intense, as third generation Kansan Congregationalist minister John Ames writes letters to his young son from his deathbed. This story is as much a tribute to fathers and sons as it is a search for spiritual integrity in a morally bankrupt world. Ames analyzes his life vis a vis his grandfather, a preacher who aligned himself with John Brown and used occasionally violent means to justify his righteous ends, and wonders if his moderate Midwest life has been too lacking in conflict to be a spiritual leader to his congregation. Robinson would seem to argue no, that it is Ames’ intellectual honesty paired with his gentle humanism that makes him such a compelling figure.
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Gilead